After the whistle blew at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and the Portland Timbers fell short of hoisting the MLS Cup, coach Giovanni Savarese was eager to assess what went wrong. The next day, on the four-hour flight from Atlanta to Portland, he watched the final back, as painful as it was, and he came away feeling the same as he had before: disappointed, but proud.

“I wanted to make sure it was fresh in my mind to look at everything that happened,” Savarese said last week. “I’ve had the chance analyze many different things, and I just think the players gave everything. For me, that’s the most important part.”

But it wasn’t the only part. The process of rebuilding the roster for 2019 was already underway and important personnel decisions loomed. The next day, the Timbers had to formally announce their roster decisions for 2019 and start cutting players from the squad as the focus turned toward next season.